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• plane table
  plane table

  noun

  a drawing board mounted on a tripod, used in the field, with an alidade, for surveying tracts of land.
• plane-table
  plane-table

  verb (used with or without object)

  to survey with a plane table.

plane table

¹ American  

Or plain table

noun

Surveying.

1. a drawing board mounted on a tripod, used in the field, with an alidade, for surveying tracts of land.

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plane-table ² American  

[pleyn-tey-buhl] / ˈpleɪnˌteɪ bəl /

verb (used with or without object)

plane-tabled, plane-tabling

1. to survey with a plane table.

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plane table British  

noun

1. a surveying instrument consisting of a drawing board mounted on adjustable legs, and used in the field for plotting measurements directly

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verb

1. to survey (a plot of land) using a plane table

Etymology

Origin of plane table¹

First recorded in 1600–10

Origin of plane-table²

First recorded in 1870–75

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

plane table plane-table

The word is found in some older English Dictionaries, and in France and Italy is still applied to the traversing index of a plane table or of a sextant.

From The Travels of Marco Polo — Volume 1 by Henry Yule

Theodolite and plane table work are not suited to very cold climates.

From South with Scott by Edward Ratcliffe Garth Russell Evans, Baron Mountevans

Gujjar Singh, with the plane-table, was detained by bad weather higher up the valley.

From Mount Everest the Reconnaissance, 1921 by Charles Kenneth Howard-Bury

To a large extent the plane-table is used.

From Scientific American Supplement, No. 484, April 11, 1885 by Various

With a careful hand it approaches the high degree of perfection attained by the plane-table method.

From Through the Brazilian Wilderness by Theodore Roosevelt

Each morning he was away with his plane-table and squad of coolies long before our breakfast was served, seldom reaching camp before nightfall.

From Mount Everest the Reconnaissance, 1921 by Charles Kenneth Howard-Bury

This map was a plane-table sketch, prepared by an engineer officer shortly before the action.

From History of the War in South Africa 1899-1902 v. 1 (of 4) Compiled by Direction of His Majesty's Government by Great Britain. War Office